Insulated wires are used in myriad applications. For instance, insulated wires may be used to create electromagnetic devices, such as motors. In particular, the wires may form coils that are wound around a magnetic core. When current flows through the wires, a magnetic field is created which may cause the core to move and produce a force. In other cases, the insulated wires may be used as part of a sensor, such as a linear variable differential transformer. Here, the wires may make up a primary winding and a secondary winding that define a bore, and a magnetic core may be disposed in the bore. The magnetic core may be configured to move axially within the bore relative to the wound wires and cause a differential current flow through the windings.
Typically, the insulated wires are made from a conductive material that is coated with an insulating material. The insulating material may be polyimide, Teflon® (available through E.I. DuPont de Nemours, Inc. of Delaware), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or other suitable material offering insulative properties. These materials may be applied to the wire via a spraying, drawing or an electrolytic process. Polyimide insulated wires are relatively inexpensive and simple to manufacture and operate sufficiently under most circumstances. However, they may have an upper continuous working temperature limit of about 240° 0C. In cases in which the insulated wires may be exposed to temperatures greater than 240° C., the polyimide insulated wires may either be disposed in a protective housing, or may be replaced with other types of insulated wires. Teflon® may be used to increase the operating temperature to a working temperature of 260° C. and a maximum excursion temperature near 300° C., but results in increased cost and thickness. Other insulating materials which offer good dielectric properties, such as silicon oxides, offer higher temperature stability but cannot be bent or formed after the insulative material has been created. Thus, use of these types of insulated wires may be dependant on applications in which space constraints are not a concern, temperature can be controlled, or materials can be formed and cured in the final application.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an insulated wire that may be used in relatively high temperature environments (e.g., greater than about 240° C.) and may be bent into a desirable shape at any time after being coated with the insulation. In addition, it is desirable to have a relatively inexpensive and simple method for manufacturing such insulated wires. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the inventive subject matter will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the inventive subject matter and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the inventive subject matter.